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During his arrest last summer, Michael John Shaw told police he was acting like a "full-blooded pedophile" when he molested an 11-year-old boy and downloaded thousands of child pornography images.

A judge treated him like one Thursday and sent him to federal prison for 15 years.

Shaw, 39, of 234 Bennett St., Luzerne, previously pleaded guilty to a federal count of sexual exploitation of minors for receiving and distributing child porn from 2012 through June 2013.

Shaw was first arrested on state charges in June after the social networking website Tagged.com reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a user named "Brett S" had been having inappropriate conversations with another user who was 10 years old.

Confronted by police, Shaw admitted to molesting an 11-year-old boy and told investigators he had been acting like a "full-blooded pedophile," according to court records.

A search of his computer showed Shaw collected and distributed more than 10,000 child porn images, some featuring boys as young as 7, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Shaw also posed as a 15-year-old boy in an attempt to convince a 10-year-old boy to send him naked pictures of himself, prosecutors said.

Shaw told the boy he wanted to have "rough sex" with him and tried to have "webcam sex" with multiple underage boys, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said Shaw got sexually aroused when he kissed the neck of an 11-year-old boy, and that he kept an image of it on his computer. Several times a week, he molested an 11-year-old boy, according to prosecutors.

"This conduct manifests a serious risk of recidivism and a danger to children," Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa wrote in a sentencing report seeking a prison term of 17½ to 20 years.

Shaw's defense sought a 14-year sentence, citing his acceptance of responsibility and his willingness to seek help for contacting minors in person and via the Internet.

Shaw himself wrote the court saying he was sorry for committing such a "disgusting crime."

"I do not believe children should be exploited especially in this type of manner on the Internet," Shaw wrote. "They should be protected at all cost from predators and sick people like myself."

Shaw went on to say his father died when he was 3 and that he never had a role model. He felt alone and was always looking to fit in but never did, he wrote.

He turned to drinking and would pass the time by "losing myself in the bottle," he wrote. Being in jail has been a "reality check and a wake-up call," and with the right treatment Shaw can "get myself better so I never think of looking at children in this manner on the Internet ever again," he wrote.

U.S. District Judge Malachy E. Mannion sentenced Shaw to 15 years in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release. Shaw will also be required to register as a sex offender and to get sex offender treatment, prosecutors said.

Court records show Shaw is still facing 1,766 counts in state court, including 1,758 counts of possessing child porn, five counts of criminal use of a communication facility and one count each of unlawful contact with a minor, endangering the welfare of a child and corruption of minors.

jhalpin@citizensvoice.com

570-821-2058, @cvjimhalpin

Sentenced to 15 years

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